He was greater than I,Hikaru
by Tim Brent
Summary: Sai talks to Hikaru about a player from his days when he was with Torajiro (Shusaku).
1. Books about the Edo era

"He was greater than I, Hikaru"  
  
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Disclaimer: The fictional characters are property of Hotta and Obata.  
  
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Chapter 1  
  
Hikaru has started to find books about the Go of the Edo Era of the 1830's and 1840's. He starts talking to his friend Sai, who was there as Torajiro, Honinbo Shusaku. Sai had played and bested all of the players,or so Hikaru thought....  
  
"Sai," Hikaru asked, "Why were you not Meijin?"  
  
  
  
"Hikaru," Sai replied, "In that time there was but 1 Meijin, and as I was never head of the Honinbo house, but only the heir, I could never be eligable for it. Not that it bothered me, as I would have been happy for Shuwa sensei to have been Meijin Godokoro".  
  
"Was Shuwa too honorable to make the dark deals to get the appointment from the Shogun, unlike Honinbo Jowa Meijin?" Hikaru asked. He was not prepared for the rage he threw his friend Sai into.  
  
"Jowa sensei had never done any such dark undertakings for to be the Meijin, Hikaru!!! To say such a thing insults my integrity and my memories!!!"   
  
Hikaru shrank. He had never seen Sai this upset before.  
  
"I am sorry, Sai," replied Hikaru quickly. "I was going by what had been in the books I was reading where it mentioned Honinbo Jowa Meijin."  
  
"Well, Hikaru, the books are wrong in this matter. I, as heir to the family, had fullest access to all documents of Jowa sensei. In none of these did it indicate any underhanded dealing to be Meijin. Even Genan and Sanchi, his two greatest rivals, did not beleive such a thing would ever be when they joined him in the other world."  
  
"What of Genbi? The story of Jowa's supposed deeds is from 1907."  
  
"Genbi was not the best of players, though good enough to head the Hayashis and play in Castle Games. The book you refer too was not written until nearly 60 years after the death of Jowa and from 45-55 years after the deaths of the others concerned."  
  
"One of the books I have read has stated that the research was done by an admirer of yours, who wished for Shusaku to be the true Kisei along with a Honinbo Dosaku."  
  
"He has done no favor to me. In fact, Jowa was a tremendous player. He was greater than I, Hikaru."  
  
"What!"  
  
"What I speak is fact, Hikaru."  
  
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	2. Jowa

Chapter 2  
  
"Sai, but you were invincible. All the Castle games you played, you won. No one canc laim such a record. You were greater."  
  
"Hikaru," Sai spoke softly, " He was a greater player in his best. In fact, when he was ill with the final illness, I played him several times, taking black and 2 stones. I lost all of the games but 1, which was never to be completed." Sai thought of the unfinished board.  
  
"But out of respect, you let him win?" Hikaru asked.  
  
"No. Nor did I allow Shuwa my teacher to win. Jowa senei beat me fairly in all cases. He saw and deflected my attacks."  
  
Hikaru looked at his friend in wonder. There was a player better than Sai? This could not be.  
  
Sai saw the look of wonder. "Yes, Hikaru, I have striven for the Hand Of God, and there have been players stronger than I whom have all failed."  
  
Sai sighed, "Maybe it is unacheivable...."  
  
This also surprised Hikaru, to hear Sai say that the Hand Of God may not be acheivable.  
  
"Sai, but it can...can't it?...."  
  
"It is, Hikaru. I was still musing about the players of that era." Sai smiled again.  
  
"Outside of Jowa sensei and Shuwa sensei, who was toughest for you?"  
  
"Ota Yuzo. For some reason I had difficulties with him, which Shuwa did not, and Jowa would not."  
  
"Do you have good memories of your matches with Jowa?"  
  
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	3. Memories

Chapter 3--Memories  
  
"Ah,yes," Sai responded.  
  
"March 29, 1847 was the last of our games. Jowa sensei had by that time become ill, and we started the game, with me taking 2 stones."  
  
" The flow of my games with him was never easy,as he played always in a very violent style, whereas Shuwa would have a somewhat lighter and gentler approach to his Go. Anyway, Jowa had started by playing the 3-16 point, here in the upper left part of the board. After which,my stones were under an incessant attack from Jowa. I, however, was able in the lower left to save my stones, and I just about had a large group of Jowa's stones captured, with losses of my own."  
  
Hikaru looked at the seemingly dreamier than usual look in Sai's eyes as he was talking about this particular game with Honinbo Jowa.  
  
"Sai," Hikaru soon asked, "You mentioned that the last of the matches with Jowa was never brought to a finish. Did Jowa choose to not finish this game knowing that he would inevitably lose to you?"  
  
The look upon Sai's face saddened considerably upon Hikaru's question about the game.  
  
"No, Hikaru," said Sai slowly, "I was leading,but the game was extremly close at the time it was suspended. We had played up to that point 94 moves of the match,and I could see then that Jowa sensei was starting to tire from his illness. We had intended to finish with the game when Jowa felt better and could continue."  
  
"Sadly, Hikaru, before we were to ever be able to continue with our match, Jowa had become much sicker, and in May of that year, he died."  
  
Hikaru looked at Sai again. It seemed as if Sai were wanting to cry over Jowa's death even now,over 150 years after the fact.   
  
Hikaru (thinking to himself) "If Sai loved Honinbo Jowa to the degree of crying for him 150 years later, the he musy not have been a bad person after all, unlike the rival Go-master at his court."  
  
Sai read Hikaru's thoughts....."Yes, Hikaru, he was truly a decent person. In the year after his death, Torajiro married his daughter,Hana."   
  
" So in the end, he became your father-in-law."  
  
"Well, Torajiro's. Hikaru, I am sorry to have become so upset over those books."  
  
"But if they are printing falsehoods, you should be upset."  
  
Sai smiled his mysterious smile.  
  
"Sai," Hikaru asked, "wanna play?"  
  
"Oh goody, play,play."  
  
Fin 


	4. Appendix and some explanations

Appendix: Some explanations to the story.and the Go of Torajiro's time  
  
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Yes, some of what I have put in the story DOES contradict the manga and anime.  
  
In the real Go world of Shusaku's era, there was one Meijin Godokoro, who was head of the Godokoro, or State Go Academy (which was ended in 1868 by the Meiji Restoration). The position of Meijin was an appointment of the Shogunate, and was equivalent to 9-Dan (until 1949, you could have only 1 9-Dan at any time. The Meijin title,such as the one Touya Kouyo won on several occasions did not exist until 1959 as the Saikyo title, becoming the Meijin title in 1962).   
  
The 8-Dan ranking was only for the head of one of the four Go Houses (Honinbo, Inoue, Yasui,and Hiyashi), therefore, as Sai mentioned in Chapter 1, he could never be Meijin as he would have to wait for his teacher Shuwa to either die or retire so that he could become head of the Honinbo house.  
  
The main contradiciton in the story is Sai losing to Jowa with Black, by his admission, and stating that stronger players than him even stumbled in chasing the Hand Of God. In real life, Shusaku did lose at least 20 games with black, and had at least 3 jigos (ties,as komi was unknown in this era). However, of survivng full kifu ( a lot are missing, and many that exist are incomplete and not showing a winner), Shusaku had a winning perecentage of over 90%, and an overall winning precentage of 76%.  
  
The only 2 fictional characters are Hikaru and Sai. All others mentioned were real Go players from the Edo era of the 1840's, when Shusaku's 20-year career began. 


End file.
